


Merry Christmas

by LilGreenAgamede



Series: Vivacity [1]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Christmas fic, Other, Post Reach Apocalyse, Snippet from a larger idea, Things Get Better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-25
Updated: 2016-12-25
Packaged: 2018-09-11 23:36:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9042746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilGreenAgamede/pseuds/LilGreenAgamede
Summary: Christmas was very different during the Reach Apocalypse.  Still, Jason Todd tries his damned hardest to make it even just the slightest bit nice for his wards.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bzbatfam](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=bzbatfam).



> Okay so my secret santa for @yjficexchange was @bzbatfam! OAO I wrote a little thing based on my own headcanons for the Reach Apocalypse world and eventually I want to expand on it because I have everything mapped out. But for now, you get a cute Christmas fic with a dash of Jason and a dash of Bluepulse. I hope you enjoy! I’m rusty but I tried my best!

Back in his time, they didn’t really have Christmas. The Reach had gone and done away with the holiday and most others. Despite their best efforts, humans managed to find their own little ways of celebrating a life long lost to time.

Bart was 10 when he first really experienced Christmas. It’d been awhile since they’d found a hidden settlement and never (at least in his memory) had they been in one during the time of the winter solstice. Sure his mom had talked about it and wished for better times where she could provide for her little clutch but it never really stood out as something he needed to remember. It wasn’t necessary for survival and with the condition the Earth was in, survival trumped a melancholy tradition.

Thus, he wasn’t expecting it when Red Hood dropped something in his lap while he was playing with some old car wiring He raised an eyebrow and picked up what looked like a can wrapped in old newspaper and tied up with rusty copper wire. 

“I could get tetanus from this,” said Bart, watching as Red Hood handed Thad a similar object.

“Shut up and enjoy the season.” Hood shrugged off his jacket and draped it over the back of a broken wooden chair. The candles lighting their little hidey hole flickered from the movement.

“What season? Season of Yearlong-Ash?” Thad grumbled, gingerly turning his can-present over in his hands. “And we’re busy trying to get this generator’s wiring good enough for it to turn on. We don’t have time for this.”

Hood plopped down in the broken chair and leaned back in it until it touched the wall of the bunker. The candles flickered again, their wicks half spent. “Didn’t your mom ever tell you about Christmas?”

Bart shrugged, still looking his present over. Carefully he unwound the wiring and set it aside. Despite the rust it was still good wiring. He couldn’t let such a good thing go to waste. Next he unfolded the newspaper. It was old and worn and wet, but it had been painstakingly folded in a manner that would make the present look… well… presentable. Bart laid the paper out in his lap and his eyes widened at the Headline.

THE FLASH SAV--

The rest of it had severe water damage and burn marks. Smudged ink under the clear part of the headline had a date. December 25, 2015.

This was something about his grandfather. Bart’s breath caught in his throat. “Hey Thad look at this!” he said, scooting over next to his brother and shoving the paper in his face. “It’s about Grandpa Barry!”

Thad looked at it, a hard and bored expression on his face. “What’s the deal with this, Todd?” he said. “You give us a snippet of a past that might be meaningful. I assume my newspaper has a headline of similar nature?”

“Nawh.” A shit-eating grin spread on Jason’s scarred face and he blew a stray strand of white hair out of his face. “I used the classified ads for yours. Figured you two would appreciate the sentiment though. Managed to get another one for Jenni and something on Owen’s dad for him. Did some trading. Lost my good copy of Great Expectations for you little snots, so suck up your sass and open your damn gift. I promised your mom I’d take care of your lot and I am.”

Bart smiled softly and reached over for his can. “So mom told you I liked pineapple?” he said, fingers gently touching the fraying faded label.

“Great Expectations, buddy. Great Expectations.”

Lips pursed and nose upturned, Thad unwrapped his own present, tossing the paper behind him into an ash-filled corner. He got really quiet and stared at the can label.

“Your mom told me that you’d never had them before but always talked about them when you were like, two or something. Baby babble, ya know?” Hood got to his feet again and stretched. “Jen and Owen also got pineapple. Real bunch of happy kids there. I’m gonna go check on them again and make sure they aren’t goofing off because they’re supposed to be on watch duty. Christmas spirit can do weird things to people.”

With that, he crawled back out of the bunker, leaving the two boys all by themselves again. 

The candles flickered.

“What’d you get?” Bart asked, setting down his own can and reaching for Thad’s. Thad jerked away from him, curling up on himself. “Come on, Thad. Show me.”

Thad shook his head. 

“Show meeeeee.”

“Why don’t you just go and mind your own business!”

+-+-+

2016

Bart didn’t like to think about what happened next. The explosion. Todd throwing the two of them out, unlocking their collars and the single uttered word.  
Run.

Then the Reach camp and escape and now… Now.

Truthfully, Bart was overwhelmed by how serious people in the past took Christmas. And that there were other holidays around that time of a similar nature. After Thanksgiving, Christmas had blown up in his face and it’d take the combined efforts of the Allen-Wests, the Reyes clan, and Artemis for Bart to fully understand the winter holiday phenomenon.

Well, understand it to an extent.

“Why would the colour of a cup be a declaration of war?” he said, staring at his steaming triple shot caramel peppermint mocha.

Jaime took a sip of his own cappuccino and shrugged. “Some people take Christmas to an extremist level,” he said. “On one hand, it’s kinda sad that this stuff happens and on the other it’s kindad heartwarming in some sick way that this can happen because people aren’t being enslaved by m-”

“An alien race hell bent on total annihilation that we were able to defeat,” Bart interjected, shooting the other an angry look. “Not Blue Beetle.”

Jaime rolled his eyes and sighed. “I know. It’s just…. Hard to accept sometimes. What happened and everything. What had the possibility of happening. It’s easier to just blame myself.”

Bart reached over with a mittened hand and grasped Jaime’s. “Cut the self-hate and chillax. We’re on a coffee date during my first real Christmas at the mall and we gotta get Milagro something awesome. My vote is still on the Green Lantern onesie.”

“The onesie is based off of the other two’s outfits, not Guy’s,” Jaime said, squeezing Bart’s hand as he started to lead them away from the Starbuck’s kiosk and back into the throng of last-minute shoppers. “And she really only likes the GLs for Guy. So.”

“All of the GLs are really cool. I don’t think she’d care. I know I wouldn’t.” 

“If we can find a store that for some reason has a Guy-based Green Lantern onesie in her size, then yeah we can get it for her,” Jaime sighed, dejection lacing his voice. After thinking over what he said for the briefest of seconds he started, “And don’t run o-”

“Hold my coffee, brb.”

“-ff to someplace only God knows where and he’s gone.”

Bart zipped back up holding an obscure shopping bag labeled in what the scarab designated as Cantonese and snatched his coffee back. He threw back his head as he took a deep swing from the red cup. “God I love ex-spresso.”

“The scarab is mildly offended because the proper pronunciation is ‘es-spresso’.”

“Well I don’t really care because there isn’t any pineapple coffee and that’s all I really care about right now.”

Jaime wrinkled his nose at the thought of pineapple coffee. “Don’t think those flavors work together too well, _hermano_.”

Bart buried his face in Jaime’s shoulder and groaned. “I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter anyways.”

With a nod, Jaime dismissed the speedster’s odd behavior and pulled him closer. “Let’s go back to my place then and get Milagro’s gift wrapped.”

Bart nodded and continued nuzzling Jaime’s wool sweater. In a split second he side-eyed a newspaper.

“Red Hood Continues Violent Vigilantism”

His smile was mellow and sad.

_Merry Christmas, Jason._


End file.
